California budget agreement includes funds for high-speed rail

The California General Assembly and Gov. Jerry Brown reached a budget deal that will includes a $250 million appropriation for high-speed rail in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.

Funding for the $68-billion high-speed rail line, which will run from Los Angeles to San Francisco, will reportedly be drawn from the state's greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program. In coming years, the high-speed rail train will reportedly receive 25 percent of the revenue from that program.

The state's funding agreement comes less than a week after the U.S. House of Representatives approved the 2015 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development funding bill, which included an amendment from Rep. Jeff Denham's (R-California) to prohibit any appropriated funds from being used for high-speed rail in the state of California.